Hey Family!
It is has been a wonderful, crazy week! I can honestly say that this week has flown by faster that all the rest. Have you ever felt like there is never enough time in the day to do everything that you want to? I have felt that for most of my mission. Now I feel like there is little time to even think about not being able to do things I need to do. Hahaha I absolutely love it.
So to explain a little bit about my new area:
Elder Reyes and I are both brand new and knew little to nothing about....well anything in our area. But, that it kind of the purpose of a "white wash". President sends in two new missionaries and it usually results in really cool miracles that couldn't have happened otherwise. When we got here, the area itself didn't have any investigators that were being taught, so we are literally starting from scratch. The Elders that were here worked super hard to try and getting things going and actually did a lot of great work, but at the end of the transfer all of their investigators had been dropped and our teaching pool was basically empty. So Elder Reyes and I arrived and we are just super pumped to hit the pavement and get to work. The only problem is that we are so flipping busy. This week we had Mission Leadership Council, which is basically when the zone leaders and sister training leaders meet in the mission home with President and Sister Griffin to talk about the upcoming month and receive training and guidance on how to go about our responsibilities in the upcoming month. It was such an inspiring meeting. The Spirit is so strong and it makes me love and appreciate President and Sister Griffin even more! They care so much about each of the missionaries. So that meeting took up all of Friday. Then we had to fill out our Stake MCM report, which is another super powerful meeting that we go to with the Naperville Stake Presidency and their council. So planning that out takes a while, basically a lot of crunching numbers from our zone. And then we had to do weekly planning (which we actually didn't finish) and plan to go on exchanges with the Elders in our zone. Oh and also plan for the District Leaders Council that we hold once a week on Tuesdays. Basically what I'm trying to get at is that life is full and wonderful! I have grown such a solid testimony of organization and planning. I also marvel at the supreme structure of God's true church. We are blessed to be lead by Him to carry out His work. Without His help, nothing of what we do could ever be possible. This is a church and organization that is run by divine guidance and inspiration. I know that. I've seen it.
The zone is full of really amazing Elders and Hermanas. One really sweet thing is that we have an all Spanish district! Which means that for the first time in my mission we were able to have our district meeting entirely in Spanish. So much fun. We also do all of our phone calls and texts in Spanish. President changed the organization of a couple of zones to be able to have our Spanish district and then my old zone also switched into an Spanish zone! Super super sweet.
(One cool fact is that I replaced my trainer Elder Marchant in this area and now he is serving with Elder Hughes as the zone leaders in the all Spanish Zone. My two best friends are in a companionship together haha. I'm jealous)
The time that we spent actually out in the streets contacting and meeting people was reall exciting! The ward is full of alot of really amazing people and I am excited to be working with all of them. We had a really great experience just yesterday when we knocked on this woman's door and started talking with her. It was actually a hilarious experience because this woman would never let us talk, we literally had to ask her, " Hermana, please can we just speak?". She is actually currently studying the Bible with another religion and was very enthusiatic about telling us the things she was learning. Slowly but surely we taught her in between her interupting us (she really is great, just likes to talk). The only time during the whole discussion that she never interuppted was when I shared with her the First Vision, the story of Joseph Smith. She just stood that are kept eye contact. Afterwards she said that she felt something while I was talking. Long story short we are meeting with her on tuesday! Pray for her. She shows real potential.
I love you all! I am trying to work out how to send pictures because the mission switched to using samsung tablets and since I was using a loaner iPad they kicked me off of it and gave me a tablet. I am still getting used to it all...
But I will try! Love you,
Elder Stewart-Chester
It is has been a wonderful, crazy week! I can honestly say that this week has flown by faster that all the rest. Have you ever felt like there is never enough time in the day to do everything that you want to? I have felt that for most of my mission. Now I feel like there is little time to even think about not being able to do things I need to do. Hahaha I absolutely love it.
So to explain a little bit about my new area:
Elder Reyes and I are both brand new and knew little to nothing about....well anything in our area. But, that it kind of the purpose of a "white wash". President sends in two new missionaries and it usually results in really cool miracles that couldn't have happened otherwise. When we got here, the area itself didn't have any investigators that were being taught, so we are literally starting from scratch. The Elders that were here worked super hard to try and getting things going and actually did a lot of great work, but at the end of the transfer all of their investigators had been dropped and our teaching pool was basically empty. So Elder Reyes and I arrived and we are just super pumped to hit the pavement and get to work. The only problem is that we are so flipping busy. This week we had Mission Leadership Council, which is basically when the zone leaders and sister training leaders meet in the mission home with President and Sister Griffin to talk about the upcoming month and receive training and guidance on how to go about our responsibilities in the upcoming month. It was such an inspiring meeting. The Spirit is so strong and it makes me love and appreciate President and Sister Griffin even more! They care so much about each of the missionaries. So that meeting took up all of Friday. Then we had to fill out our Stake MCM report, which is another super powerful meeting that we go to with the Naperville Stake Presidency and their council. So planning that out takes a while, basically a lot of crunching numbers from our zone. And then we had to do weekly planning (which we actually didn't finish) and plan to go on exchanges with the Elders in our zone. Oh and also plan for the District Leaders Council that we hold once a week on Tuesdays. Basically what I'm trying to get at is that life is full and wonderful! I have grown such a solid testimony of organization and planning. I also marvel at the supreme structure of God's true church. We are blessed to be lead by Him to carry out His work. Without His help, nothing of what we do could ever be possible. This is a church and organization that is run by divine guidance and inspiration. I know that. I've seen it.
The zone is full of really amazing Elders and Hermanas. One really sweet thing is that we have an all Spanish district! Which means that for the first time in my mission we were able to have our district meeting entirely in Spanish. So much fun. We also do all of our phone calls and texts in Spanish. President changed the organization of a couple of zones to be able to have our Spanish district and then my old zone also switched into an Spanish zone! Super super sweet.
(One cool fact is that I replaced my trainer Elder Marchant in this area and now he is serving with Elder Hughes as the zone leaders in the all Spanish Zone. My two best friends are in a companionship together haha. I'm jealous)
The time that we spent actually out in the streets contacting and meeting people was reall exciting! The ward is full of alot of really amazing people and I am excited to be working with all of them. We had a really great experience just yesterday when we knocked on this woman's door and started talking with her. It was actually a hilarious experience because this woman would never let us talk, we literally had to ask her, " Hermana, please can we just speak?". She is actually currently studying the Bible with another religion and was very enthusiatic about telling us the things she was learning. Slowly but surely we taught her in between her interupting us (she really is great, just likes to talk). The only time during the whole discussion that she never interuppted was when I shared with her the First Vision, the story of Joseph Smith. She just stood that are kept eye contact. Afterwards she said that she felt something while I was talking. Long story short we are meeting with her on tuesday! Pray for her. She shows real potential.
I love you all! I am trying to work out how to send pictures because the mission switched to using samsung tablets and since I was using a loaner iPad they kicked me off of it and gave me a tablet. I am still getting used to it all...
But I will try! Love you,
Elder Stewart-Chester